Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R,C,I-Schenectady-Saratoga) today called for
the immediate re-opening of the five-way leaders' public budget negotiations. Tedisco called
for the return of the public and transparent meetings between the governor and the four legislative
leaders as a way to publicly discuss and debate differences and potential compromises regarding
the $112.8 billion state budget and Gov. Pataki's $2.9 billion in budget vetoes.

Tedisco called the ongoing "sparring in the media" counterproductive and said a looming
court battle must be averted.

"Put the governor and all four legislative leaders back at the roundtable and let's put everything
on the table. Right now, we're hearing a lot of sniping via the media and we're hearing a lot of radio ads.
What we're not hearing enough of is substantial debate. The only way we can get that is to bring it back
to the Red Room in full public view. That way there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide and only limited
opportunity to spin," said Tedisco. "If this dialogue continues to degrade and this goes to court
we all lose."

"There are some legitimate arguments on all sides of this debate. Let's bring all sides together and have an honest discussion and work it through that way instead of through media sound-bites and possible legal action," said Assemblyman James Hayes (R-Amherst) Ranking Minority Member on the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.